Terms And Conditions

Newsquest website user terms

IMPORTANT NOTICE: YOU MUST CAREFULLY READ AND THEN AGREE TO THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS SET OUT BELOW BEFORE ACCESSING AND USING THE SITE. IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO BE BOUND BY THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS, YOU MAY NOT ACCESS OR USE THE SITE.

Welcome to www.thelancasterandmorecambecitizen.co.uk (the “Site”), our digital content platform which you may access in several ways, including but not limited to the World Wide Web, digital television, PDA, mobile phone devices, RSS feeds and email.

This site is owned and made available by Newsquest Media Group Limited of Loudwater Mill, Station Road, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. HP10 9TY (referred to in these Terms and Conditions as “we” and “us”). The Terms and Conditions form part of an agreement between you, the end-user, and ourselves and sets out the conditions under which you may access the information, products, services and advertisements (the “Material”) available through the Site.

By accessing, viewing or using the Material on the Site you have indicated to us that you both understand and agree to be bound by these Terms and Conditions.

In these terms and conditions, when we say Site, we mean our digital content platform, regardless of how you access it.

1. Terms and conditions:

These terms and conditions ("the Terms") govern your use of this Newsquest website (the "website" or "site"), regardless of how you access it, including community forums, reader comments and blogs. Your attention is particularly drawn to the disclaimers in paragraphs 15 - 18. Your use of the website is also subject to our Privacy Policy.

You must read the Terms and Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with the Terms, do not use this website. If you do use the website, your conduct indicates that you agree to be bound by the Terms.

Newsquest reserves the right to amend these Terms from time to time. Any such amendment will be applicable to all persons accessing the website once the revised Terms have been posted on the website. You should therefore check the website from time to time to review the current Terms.

We do not actively moderate, monitor or edit contributions to the community forums, reader comments or blogs, but we may intervene and take such action as we think necessary. If you have any concerns over the contents on our site, please either register those concerns as the community and comment tool permits or contact us here (Desktop site).

2. No warranty

The Site is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis and in particular we do not warrant that:

the Site will continue to be available to you in either its current format or from its current domain name;

the Site or any software available from the Site will be free from viruses or defects;

the Material contained on the Site will be true, accurate or complete in all respects, except always to the extent otherwise set out in the Terms and Conditions and to any warranties which would be implied by law (including without limitation, warranties as to satisfactory quality and fitness for a particular purpose).

3. Liability

Except for death or personal injury arising from our negligence, we shall not be liable for any direct, indirect or consequential loss or damage (including without prejudice to the foregoing generality, any lost business opportunities, loss of profit or goodwill) arising from or in any way connected with the Site, or your inability to use the Site.

4. Downloadable Material

All our downloadable material is carefully checked for viruses before being uploaded onto the site, however we recommend that, as an extra precaution you run your own virus check on each document you download before saving it to your disk or hard drive.

5. Use of the Web Site

You undertake:

not to use the Material for any unlawful purpose;

that you shall not make any use of the Site so that the Site is interrupted, damaged, rendered less efficient, or the functionality of the Site is in any way impaired; in particular that you shall not run any automated scripts on any part of the site without our express authorisation.

not to use the Site for the transmission or posting of any computer viruses or any material which is defamatory, offensive or of an obscene or menacing character, or in such a way as to cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety;

not to use the Site in a manner which constitutes a violation or infringement of any person, firm or company (including but not limited to rights of copyright or confidentiality);

that you shall not use the Site to transmit any material for the purposes of publicity, promotion and/or advertising without our prior written consent; and

that in the event that you may have any right, claim or action against any other user arising out of the use of the Site you shall pursue such right, claim or action independently of, and without recourse to, us.

that you will indemnify and defend us against all claims, liability, damages, costs and expenses, including legal fees, arising out of a breach of these Terms and Conditions or any use of the Material or the Site.

We shall have the right to immediately suspend your access to the Site if you commit a breach of these Terms and Conditions.

6. Rights

The design, images and content of the Site are, unless otherwise stated, our property or our licensors' property.

We provide Material on the Site solely for your personal use and the reproduction of the whole or any part of the Site, except for any temporary copies made necessarily in downloading the Site, for purposes other than private and personal use, is prohibited, as is distributing, displaying or copying the Site, unless it is for the personal use of a third party.

No part of the Site can be reproduced on, transmitted to or stored on any other web site or other form of electronic retrieval system, nor may any part of the site be accessed in such manner as to make it appear part of any third parties web site without our prior written consent.

6.a RSS Feeds

By downloading and using our RSS Feeds you agree to be bound by our terms and conditions.

Our RSS feeds are entirely free of charge for non-commercial use. You may not use our feeds on any site that we would consider a competitor to Lancaster And Morecambe Citizen. If you wish to discuss any commercial content or data feed requirements you may have, please contact us (Desktop site).

7. Links to other Sites

Any web sites to which you link through the Site (including, without limitation, any web site provided by a third party but co-branded web site) are independent of the Site and we have no control over them and accept no liability in respect of your use or inability to use them or any of the content of such web sites.

8. Content

We accept no liability with respect to any of the products, information, material or services offered or provided by other organisations listed on, or linked to, this Site, nor do we endorse any of those organisations or any of their products or services. Should you decide to contract with any of these organisations, the contract will be directly between you and the relevant organisation. We will have no contractual involvement, and will not be liable in contract or otherwise for any products, information, materials or services provided to you by any of these organisations.

Please note that, although these organisations have attempted to ensure that any information or prices provided through the Site are as accurate as possible, they are not legally binding in any way.

Community

9. Registration

When seeking access to parts of the website, such as community forums, reader comments, blogs, Jobs, Homes and Cars sections you may be asked to register if you want to submit a contribution, save details of adverts or set up email alerts. You must then supply certain details if requested, such as your email address and a password. If you are under 16 you must get the consent of a parent or guardian before registering.

You can only access the registration areas of the site if:

your email address and password (if requested) are personal and may not be used by anyone else to access the site;

you do not do anything to allow anyone who is not a registered user to access any registration area of the site;

you do not create additional registration accounts which may cause disruption or abuse of the site;

you do not supply us with false or misleading information or pass yourself off as another user.

If we believe that you have not complied with these requirements, we may cancel your access to the site immediately and without notice.

10. Cancellation or suspension

We can suspend or cancel this agreement and your ability to use the website and its community forums, reader comments and blogs with immediate effect at any time for any reason, including but not restricted to your serious or repeated breach of these Terms or any conduct in connection with your use of this site that we consider inappropriate or disruptive and which is serious or persistent. We will notify you of such termination at your registered email address and invalidate your access to the site.

11. Your responsibilities

You are legally responsible for material you post or submit and you understand that by doing so you intend it to be published on the website. Such material may include without limitation words, artwork, pictures (still or moving) and sound. You give us free of charge the non-exclusive, sub-licensable right to edit, delete, copy, translate, create derivative works from, publish, broadcast, transmit, distribute, perform, make available to the public or otherwise use and re-use material contributed by you (or not use it) on the website and its community forums, reader comments and blogs and associated publications, and in any other media (now known or later developed) worldwide for the full term of any rights that may exist in your contribution (including any renewals or extensions) and you waive any moral rights in your contribution for these purposes.

12. By publishing or posting material on this website, you warrant to us that:

You do not infringe the rights of any individual, corporation or organisation, including but not restricted to the owners of any copyright and other intellectual property, confidentiality or privacy right, and you have obtained any necessary permissions.

The material is your own original work or you have the right to make it available to use for the purposes in 11 above.

You have not defamed any individual, corporation organisation or otherwise affected their legal rights. This may include but is not restricted to: comment which cannot be justified; facts which are untrue or unprovable; statements breaching an individual's privacy; statements which may prejudice a court case; images or statements which are obscene, pornographic or illegal; statements which are offensive on grounds of race, religion, creed, colour or which may incite hatred or disrespect in any third party; statements which breach the criminal law, whether or not known to be illegal; statements which may breach professional ethics or standards.

13.

You acknowledge that all rights, including copyright and database rights, for any content on the website (including Newsquest trade names and logos) or which is submitted by you belong to us or are licensed by you to us for the purposes in 11 above. You may read and contribute to the website and its communities, comments and blogs for your own private purposes but not for any advertising or other commercial purpose (which includes junk mail, spam, chain letters, pyramid schemes or any other form of solicitation or commercial exploitation). For private purposes, you may download and use reader-generated content on a single PC and you may print out (but not photocopy) one hard screen copy of contributions to the website and its communities, comments or blogs for your personal use only. But you will not otherwise copy, store, distribute, publish, broadcast, transmit, show in public, create a database (in electronic or any other medium) from downloaded materials or otherwise use any part of this website without our written permission, except that you may reproduce reasonable extracts of any contribution to the website and its community, comments and blogs without our prior permission for non-commercial purposes provided that you deal fairly with the material and you properly accredit any original work to its author and the name of this site.

14. Indemnity

You indemnify and will keep indemnified Newsquest Media Group Ltd ("Newsquest"), its holding companies and subsidiaries of Newsquest or any of its holding companies, together with their respective directors, employees and shareholders, from and against all claims, actions, proceedings, liabilities, losses, damages, expenses and costs (including legal costs) arising from any breach of these Terms by you or from the publication of any posting or submission whatsoever contributed by you or on your behalf. We reserve the right to take over the exclusive defence of any claim, action or proceeding for which you shall be financially responsible, and for which we are entitled to indemnity from you. In such event, you shall provide us with all co-operation as may reasonably be requested by us.

15. Loss or damage - disclaimer

You acknowledge that:

the contributions to the website and its community forums, reader comments and blogs are the statements and views of the contributors and not of us or any of our connected companies, directors employees or shareholders;

it is your sole responsibility to check the accuracy of any facts and opinions given on this website before entering into any commitment based upon them;

we do not, as a matter of course, actively moderate, monitor or edit the contributions to the website and its community;

any third parties advertising on our websites, or external (or link) sites accessible via our websites, are not under our control and we are not responsible in any way for any of their contents or for any agreement you may enter into with a third party arising from your visit to our websites.

16.

We are not liable for any loss or damage, howsoever arising, from contributions to the website and its community by other parties, your use of this site or inability to use this site, or any errors and omissions on this site, whether in contract, tort or otherwise and whether such loss or damage is foreseen or forseeable. This includes but is not restricted to indirect, consequential, special or exemplary damages, loss of business, loss of profit, loss of revenue, loss of opportunity, loss of reputation, loss of data and loss suffered by third parties. This does not exclude our liability for fraud, or for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, or for any other liability which cannot be excluded or limited by law.

17.

We make no representations and give no warranties with regard to the quality, suitability, reliability, compatibility, accuracy, non-infringement or completeness of the contents of this website, and any implied warranties are excluded to the extent permitted by law.

18.

We do not warrant that this website, the server that supplies it or any other of our systems will be uninterrupted or free of errors, viruses or bugs and we shall not be liable if this site is inaccessible at any time. Access may be suspended temporarily without notice for technical reasons or for reasons over which we have no control.

19. Data protection

We will use your personal details to administer this site. From time to time, we may send direct marketing or promotional material information from us or selected third parties. You can indicate you do not wish to receive such material by editing your account preferences here.

20.

If we find your use of this site seriously inappropriate, offensive or disruptive, we may use information we have about you to stop such conduct, and this may include informing relevant third parties such as your employer, school, email provider or, in the case of any suspected unlawful activity, the police.

These Terms shall be governed by the laws of England and Wales and any disputes will be submitted to and resolved by the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.

23.

If any of these terms are determined to be illegal, invalid or otherwise unenforceable by any court then, to the extent to which that term is illegal, invalid or unenforceable, it shall be severed and deleted from these Terms and the remaining terms shall remain in full force and effect.

Newsquest Media Group Limited is registered in England and Wales with company number 1676637, with registered address at Loudwater Mill, Station Road, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. HP10 9TY.

External contributors

If you are contributing material to our publications, it is essential that you should read, understand and accept the following Terms. If you do contribute material, you will be deemed to be doing so in full knowledge and acceptance of these Terms. If you have any questions, please contact the relevant Editor.

General

Unless otherwise agreed in writing by a local publisher, these Terms apply to all Publications (including the title publishing these Terms) produced by a company within the Newsquest Media Group in England and Wales, all being subsidiary companies of Gannett U.K. Limited. Your agreement is with the Newsquest Media Group publishing company producing the relevant Publication (“we”, “us” “our”). Local terms apply to Publications produced by Newsquest (Herald & Times) Limited in Scotland and external contributors must check the local websites or enquire directly. Otherwise, these Terms set out our agreement with professional freelances (including news and photo agencies) and other external contributors to our Publications, including bloggers and ‘citizen journalists’ who are authorised by us in writing to upload blogs to our websites, (in each case “you” or “your”).

The Works of non-commissioned casual contributors of user-generated content (“UGC”) to our websites, including website comment pages, are not governed by these Terms, but rather by local user terms published on the relevant website itself. UGC is not edited, selected or otherwise pre-moderated by us but uploaded directly by the contributor, who is liable in law for such material.

In these Terms:

“Publication” means any title or other publication (existing now created in the future) in any medium or format (whether such medium exists now or is invented in the future), however accessed, distributed or stored (including print, online, electronic, broadcast, and telephonic media, access or distribution by PC or mobile or tablet apps or other portable devices, or access, distribution or storage on disc or tape or any other platform or means) and in all that publication’s issues, editions, versions, parts, supplements and archives.

“Work” means any copyright work as defined in copyright legislation (including written material, photographs, sound, video and graphic materials) and covers unused Work intended for use by us as well background Work gathered or created in connection with a Work which is intended for use. Work includes any Work commissioned by us from freelances (including commissioned ‘bloggers’ or ‘citizen journalists’ online) or which is submitted speculatively to us and accepted by us in writing.

References to the “use” of a Work by us include reproduction, display, publication, transmission, distribution, storage and any other use or re-use.

Any words following the words ‘including’, ‘include’, ‘in particular’, ‘for example’ or any similar expression shall be construed as illustrative and shall not limit the sense of the words, description, definition, phrase or term preceding those words.

Unless the context otherwise requires, words in the singular shall include the plural and in the plural shall include the singular.

Notices required to be in writing may include emails.

By submitting to us any Work for our use, or by agreeing to prepare Work or by using any of our websites, you agree to be legally bound by these Terms which will take effect immediately. If you do not agree to be legally bound by all of the Terms you must not accept a commission from us for any Work or offer your Work for use by us. If you do, you will be deemed to have read, agreed and accepted these Terms.

This agreement replaces and supersedes any existing agreement between you and us in relation to your Work, which automatically ends on your submission of Work to us under these Terms.

This agreement between you and us is subject to the laws and the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.

No variation

These Terms cannot be varied except with the express written agreement of the Editor of the relevant Publication. We may change these Terms at any time and it is your sole responsibility to check online for any changes before you offer any Work or accept any commission from us to produce Work. Any Work supplied to us for use is deemed to have been supplied in acceptance of the most recent version of the Terms as displayed on the relevant Publication’s website at the time of your contribution or commission. Your continued or renewed contribution of Work after such changes are posted means you agree to be bound by these Terms as they have been amended.

Grant of rights in the Work

The legal copyright in the Work is retained by you. By your agreement to these Terms, you give us the rights in the Work which are set out below. Subject to these Terms and in particular the proviso for commissioned Work below, Our rights in the Work are non-exclusive, which means that you can also use the Work as you wish at the same time as we use it.

Where a Work is specifically commissioned by us or you are a commissioned blogger or citizen journalist, you give us the exclusive right to first use of the Work in any medium as permitted by these Terms. If there is a delay of more than 90 days from our receipt of the Work to its first use by us, then you may apply to the Editor for a written waiver of our exclusive right to first use, which will not be unreasonably refused.

While you retain copyright in the Work, We shall have the following rights (some of which may overlap), which are worldwide, perpetual irrevocable and sub-licensable:

the right to use and re-use the Work in any of our Publications;

the right to syndicate, distribute and license the Work to third parties;

the rights to use the title, format and any pseudonym associated with the Work;

the right to store your Work in any archive or database in any medium or format existing now or created in the future and to make such archive or database available to the public (whether or not for a fee);

the right to edit, amend, cut, translate or otherwise alter your Work as we may consider appropriate;

the right to authorise the Newspaper Licensing Agency (“NLA”) to distribute or license the distribution of your Work (or links to your Work in our online Publications, archives or databases) for its licensed purposes as may be amended from time to time;

the right to authorise third party information providers to use your Work as published or otherwise used in our Publications in their databases (in any medium or format and on any platform) for search and copying by their end users;

The right to use the Work and any image of you or other personal details for the purposes of publicity or marketing or any other purpose in connection with the exercise of our rights under this agreement with you.

If you exercise any of your retained rights in respect of the Work, you agree to ensure that your use will not conflict with our use of the Work or any other of our legitimate commercial interests, and you will procure an acknowledgement to us and our relevant Publication in any further use you might make of your Work, together with a link to the Work on our relevant website wherever possible.

You acknowledge that as a matter of law moral rights do not arise in connection with current affairs reporting or any publication in newspapers or magazines, but to the extent that moral rights may be applicable to any use of a Work permitted under this agreement you waive them unless otherwise agreed in writing with the Editor.

Payment

Many Works are commissioned or accepted by us without payment of a fee. In any such case, you agree that the opportunity to have your Work published or considered for use by us is adequate consideration for the rights granted to us in this agreement. No fee will be payable unless the Editor of the relevant Publication has expressly agreed in writing in advance of commission or acceptance to pay you a fee for your Work. If a fee is agreed, it will be a single all-inclusive fee for all the rights granted above. The fee will be fixed at our prevailing standard rates, as may be published and varied from time to time, unless otherwise expressly agreed in writing by the Editor. The fee includes the cost of delivering the Work and all customary expenses incurred by you in researching and creating it. Any additional expenses or payments must be approved in advance by the Editor in writing. Provided that the Work is delivered and complies with these Terms (and any additional or substitute terms agreed in writing), payment will be made at the end of the month following the month of our first use of the Work. In respect of a Work that we have agreed to pay for, we will also pay you 50% of the net revenue actually received by us in respect of a one-off syndication of an individual Work of yours to an end-user customer of ours for print publication.

No obligation

We are not under any obligation to use your Work. If we have commissioned a Work from you and a payment is agreed but we do not use the Work, you will be paid in full subject to these Terms (unless the Work has been rejected because it does not comply with our editorial standards). If you are not commissioned but submit a Work speculatively and it is initially accepted for use for an agreed fee though we decide later not to use it for any reason, you will not receive a fee but all rights in the Work will revert to you. No Work is accepted under these Terms unless and until it is expressly accepted in writing (including email) by the Editor or by an authorised person acting on the Editor’s behalf or it is actually used by us in a Publication.

Your warranties and indemnity

You warrant in respect of the Work you offer or contribute that:

it is your own original work and (unless otherwise stated by you in writing) it has not been previously published in print or online;

you have obtained any necessary consent or licence required for our use of the Work and our acceptance or use of the Work will not infringe any person’s rights, including copyright and other intellectual property rights, performance rights, or rights of privacy or confidentiality, data protection or any other right;

in producing your Work you have complied with the Data Protection Act 1998;

your Work is not defamatory of any person or other legal entity; and

our acceptance or use of the Work will not put us in contempt of court or otherwise in breach of civil or criminal law (including laws relating to harassment, trespass, bribery or disclosure of personal data).

You agree to indemnify us fully against all damages, losses, costs and expenses (including reasonable legal costs) and other liabilities incurred or suffered by us as a result of any claim from a third party arising from or in connection with your breach of your warranties or other obligations under these Terms.

Our editorial standards

Our reputation is very important to us. You agree that you will produce the Work to the highest professional and ethical standards, including compliance with the Editorial Code of Practice of the Independent Press Standards Organisation.

We reserve the right to reject a Work (and cancel any agreed fee) that in our opinion:

does not comply with the Editorial Code of Practice or which otherwise puts you in breach of these Terms; or

does not achieve a suitable standard of editorial quality.

In respect of any Work of Yours that has been commissioned, accepted or used by us:

you will tell the Editor of our relevant Publication without delay if you become aware at any time of any information that may cast doubt on information or claims affecting or contained in your Work or any other legal or compliance risk relating to the Work; and

if you become aware of any complaint about your Work at any time, you should not reply to the complainant but rather notify the Editor of our relevant Publication immediately in writing.

We will have sole control over the handling of any complaint about your Work and you will co-operate fully with us in order to resolve it. You will ensure that you keep all your notes and research materials and, if we ask, you will provide us with such notes and materials, together with all other relevant background information and access to your sources where reasonably necessary for compliance or legal purposes. You will not mention or discuss a complaint with any person without the Editor’s prior written approval.

Self-employed

You confirm in respect of your contribution of any Work that you are an independent self-employed contractor and we shall not be liable for any of your acts or omissions in connection with the Work you submit. You are solely responsible for the payment of all your taxes and national insurance and you are not entitled to any pension or other benefit offered to our employees.